From Time Out, Wednesday 18th February 1987:
SCHOOL FOR SCANDALPage 2 of the Independent, Saturday 21st February 1987:
Many of those drawn to teaching aspirations; after all they're guaranteed a captive audience all year round. But it's often the kids who dominate the performance, as two teachers turned TV scriptwriters explain to
Don Perretta.It's not uncommon for those who have been processed through the British educational system to have in their dinner party repertoire at least one absolute from their days at school. Imagine a TV series packed with the ghastliest of those stories and set in a run-down comprehensive and you'll arrive at 'Hardwicke House', Central TV's latest comedy.
Written by Simon Wright and Richard Hall (Wright, an ex-teacher, is now a producer/company director of the Comic Strip production company while Hall is still teaching history full-time), 'Hardwicke House' is one of the wildest comedies to come out of an independent television sector not known for taking risks - or making many decent sitcoms for that matter. It is painfully funny, almost entirely because the incidents portrayed are not all that far from reality and the moments of recognition are frequent and vivid.
The writers confirm that there is more than the proverbial grain of truth in the show. Hall: 'It got to the point where we had to do something along these lines. The number of times over a drink the remark's been made "Jesus, someone's got to write this story". So we just sat down and decided to have a bash at it.' Wright: 'It's such a rich subject, so ripe for this kind of treatment. Nothing that's happened to me at anytime in my life is anything like the three tears I spent teaching. I'm amazed that no one's done this sort of thing for such a long time.'
'Hardwicke House' is the first work either have written for television (although Hall confesses to having once sold an article to Titbits). They met while teaching in the same North London school seven years ago, but it wasn't until Wright's association with the Comic Strip made him familiar with the workings of the film/television industries that they had the confidence to submit an idea to a TV company.
Hall and Wright consequently are very vulnerable and precious about their first-born creation, but as far as Central are concerned it's a major success. After tinkering a little with the original idea (they were especially nervous about a black African teacher character who was eventually dropped from the script to avoid the minefield of racial stereotypes), the company ploughed in sufficient funds to make it a big production number and then put it up against 'Dallas'. The second series goes into production in a month's time.
Although the cast is universally well-chosen, with Roy Kinnear and Roger Sloman perfect as a fat fool of a headmaster and his sycophantic, perverted deputy head respectively, it's Gavin Richards as the street-wise Mr Flashman who stands out. Hall: 'He's excellent. Flashman is also the character who is closest to either of us, in as much as we have him doing some of the things that I do all the time. I've found that if you're teaching about the First World War or something similar, the only way to get the kids to shut up is to concentrate on the violence, death and destruction and if possible to show them videos of the same.'
But even if there is a strong streak of uncomfortable reality in 'Hardwicke House', there are certain things hat the authors could never have used on television. Hall: 'We must all know stories of teachers coming in and finding turds on their desks, but something happened the other wee that you will not believe. A kid wanked himself off in science class and then rubbed it on another kid's face who ran out screaming and on the verge of being sick. That is the tops. In all my time teaching, I thought there was nothing left to shock me. What would Kenneth Baker say? When he says "the comprehensive system isn't working", has he even in his wildest nightmares any idea that something like that could happen?'
'Hardwick House' starts on Tuesday night with a one-hour special, followed on Wednesday by the first of six half-hour episodes. See TV Selections.
Teacher tells tales out of school in TV seriesPage 19 of the News Of The World, Sunday 22nd February 1987:
By Peter DunnTEACHERS and children at one of London's big East End comprehensive schools, Homerton House in Hackney, will turn on their televisions next Tuesday to find out what their history teacher, Richard Hall, thinks about the system.
They may be in for a bit of a shock. Mr Hall, along with Simon Wright who taught English at Homerton House for three years, has written a seven-part comedy series for Central TV, Hardwicke House, about the "bullies, thugs, sadists and weirdoes" who teach in a comprehensive school. The first, hour-long, episode. Part two is on Wednesday evening.
Hardwicke's "undisciplined rabble," according to Central's Press Office, is based on amalgams of teachers known to the authors of the series. The school head, played by Roy Kinnear, is a fumbling drunk. His deputy (Roger Sloman) is a paedophile who takes off little boys' clothes in the school washroom. The French mistress (Pam Ferris) is a loony-lefty, more interested in demos than irregular verbs.
This "appalling bunch of teaching misfits" is counter-pointed by a race of hooligans, the school's children, looting and thieving in pursuit of Hardwicke's three Rs - "rioting, rebellion and arson."
Hardwicke House was filmed on location at a disused school in Nottingham. Central TV and the series' authors refused to name the real source of inspiration in the East End. "I don't think they will want it revealed for obvious reasons," a Central spokesman said.
Homerton House is a boys' school with 1,288 pupils, above-average school by ILEA standards, coming 33rd out of 152 in the authority's league table of exam performances.
Mr Wright taught there (his only school) for three years until he left the profession five years ago. He is now a producer for the Comic Strip. Mr Hall is still there, thankful that the school has broken up for half-term. He has taught in three schools in London and in another near his native Belfast.
He admitted yesterday that he had not told his headmaster about the series." For me to have discussed it with him would have implied there was something to be worried about," he said. "My other colleagues have already told me they think it sounds like a good laugh. When they've seen it they'll have to draw their own conclusions. I wouldn't go further than to say the characters are just amalgams of teachers we've known.
"The left-wing woman, quite honestly, represents five people put together into one little dynamo.
"When you're dealing with kids there's not the same onus on you to hide your traits. A bank manager can't sit there picking his nose in the office but a teacher of many years' standing might sit picking his nose because he doesn't give it a second thought. In that respect traits are exaggerated in schools which wouldn't be tolerated outside."
And whose traits at Homerton House were represented by the paedophile teacher of Hardwicke House? "I think you get these people everywhere," Mr Hall said vaguely. "You have them in offices. I've heard of High Court judges doing that. And quite a few journalists."
Cindy is caught in school for scandal!Page 13 of the Sun, Wednesday 25th February 1987:
By IVAN WATERMAN*
SEXY Cindy Day is at the centre of a storm over a new ITV comedy series that depicts teachers as perverts and drunks. Blonde Cindy, 22, who plays head girl, admits: "It's all very naughty.* "One of the masters likes me to dress up in stockings and suspender belt." Despite the rumpus it is the biggest break for Cindy, a hostess from The Price Is Right, who will also be seen soon in EastEnders.
And last night co-writer and ex-teacher Simon Wright defended the school for scandal.
He challenged Mary Whitehouse to take her protests to the watchdog Independent Broadcasting Authority.
* Wright stormed: "She's a stupid old woman who never knows what she's talking about.
"I expect she'll go bananas, but she always does. There's a pervert teacher in every comprehensive, and probably a drunk.
"Real-life schools are much worse."
The series - called Hardwicke House - begins on Tuesday.
SEXY TV SCHOOL SPARKS OUTCRYPage 3 of Broadcast, Friday 27th February 1987:
By MARTIN SMITH
A NEW television comedy showing sex-mad schoolgirls trying to get their teachers into bed sparked protests from hundreds of viewers last night.ITV switchboards were jammed with callers accusing the programme - Hardwicke House, set in a Midlands comprehensive school - of setting a bad example to children.
It showed kids hurling ABUSE at school staff and RUNNING riot in class and BENT teachers doing anything to make a quick buck.
The comedy, starring Roy Kinnear, was shown throughout the ITV network at peak-viewing time and would have been watched by millions of youngsters.
The one-hour special launched a seven-part series of Hardwicke House which begins tonight.
Early
One mother said: "How dare they put it out so early when children are still watching telly."
And an angry teachers aid: "It makes us a laughing stock."
Central Television, who made the series, see it as a 1980s version of Please Sir.
A spokesman said: "People should remember it's meant to be a black comedy and should not be offended."
Anger as Central sit-com axedPage 5 of the Daily Telegraph, Staurday 28th February 1987:The last-minute axeing of Central Television's sit-com Hardwicke House has provoked angry protests from production staff.
Morale is low at the Nottingham Studios, and staff, who believe they worked hard to make a good series, feel let down.
The programme was referred to the director of programmes, Andy Allan, at all stages and, because of the alternative nature of the series, close contact was kept with the IBA.
A second series has now been pulled although Allan initially gave the go-ahead and artistes had been contracted to start shooting in May.
The producer, Paula Burdon, and controller of light entertainment, Jon Scoffield, pressed for a slot after 21.00 because they saw the programme as having a similar audience to The Young Ones and Spitting Image. The production team argues that complaints from viewers have largely been about the time-slot.
The furore has aroused speculation over the future of Scoffield who has supported the programme throughout.
Allan announced last Friday that the present series of Hardwicke House would be pulled after the first two episodes. Central is now looking to run the rest of the series in a late-night slot.
ITV drops 'offensive' comedyPage 3 of the Daily Express Saturday 28th February 1987:
By Harvey Lee,
Television CorrespondentA PEAK-TIME ITV situation comedy has been dropped less than a week after its first appearance following telephone calls from angry viewers.
"Offensive", "sick", "disgraceful", "disgusting" and "simply not funny" were some of the reports across the country that greeted the first visit to "Hardwicke House", and anarchic comprehensive school population by corrupt teachers and diabolical pupils.
Central Television, which launched the series with a 60-minute edition on Tuesday night followed by a half-hour episode on Wednesday, admitted receiving an "abnormal" number of complaints.
Thames Television took more than 60 calls in the London area on the first night, only one of them in favour of the series.
Several teachers complained, including one who told the company's duty officer: "No wonder kids are so badly behaved if this is what you show on television."
The series was pulled from the schedules yesterday by Mr Andy Allen, Central's head of programmes. He said: "On the evidence of the first two programmes, it is clear that this brave attempt to break new ground has not found favour with the majority of viewers."
A central spokesman said the decision was not taken under pressure from the other ITV companies and that the remaining five episodes would be shown "as soon as a suitably late night slot can be found."
Viewers force ITV to 'scrap' school shockerFrom the Star, Saturday 28th February 1987:
By IAN LYNESSITV's controversial new school comedy series Hardwicke House, starring Roy Kinnear, has been dropped in its first week, following a barrage of complaints.
The seven-part series, set in an anarchic comprehensive lasted for just two episodes.
Viewers jammed ITV switchboards attacking the show's bad language and its portrayal of teachers and pupils running riot. They also found the episodes unfunny.
Star Roy Kinnear, said last night: "I respect the decision to take the series off but I stand by the show.
Audience slams bad language
"I was not displeased with it. In fact I enjoyed it. Humour is a very personal thing and I think the reaction to the show was rather quick on both sides.
"I don't think the language was that aggressive. You hear far worse on other programmes.
"I think people lost sight of the fact that it was a comedy and thought it was more factual than it was ever intended to be. It was meant to be an exaggeration.
"Nobody complained when girls ran around in stockings in the St Trinians films, and that was a private sector school."
He added: "That people should take Hardwicke House to be a comment on the comprehensive system in beyond me."
Hardwicke House began its run on Tuesday evening this week with an hour-long episode.
There was a second, half-hour episode the following evening and the series was scheduled to run at 8.30 p.m. for the next five Wednesdays.
The remaining episodes will be screened in a late-night slot at a date which has still to be decided.
Mr Andy Allan, director of programmes at Central Television, which make Hardwicke House, said last night: "We received higher than the normal number of complaints about her series."
"Viewers didn't like the language or the way the school was portrayed.
Appeal
"On the evidence of the first two programmes, it is clear this brave attempt to break new ground has not found favour with ITV viewers watching at peak time.
"It has a certain appeal to young adults but was not acceptable to a majority of our viewers."
A Central spokesman would not say how much the series cost to make.
It was co-written by teacher Richard Hall and ex-teacher Simon Wright, who is now a producer for the Comic Strip.
At the launch of the series, Mr Wright said: "I taught English in the East End for three years, which is where I met Richard.
'Lifelike'
"Believe me, there are schools like Hardwicke House all over the country."
Mr Hall added: "The series is a reflection of inner-city comprehensives today. The kids in the show are very lifelike and the staff are actually amalgams of teachers that we know.
"But we're not trying to knock teachers. Most of them do a great job under extremely difficult circumstances. I hope teachers won't take offence."
The series showed one teacher having a strong physical development and another with a sadistic bent.
Other members of staff included a teacher who allowed a pupil to mark exercise books.
EXPRESS TV CRITIC MAUREEN PATON WRITES:
● It was a gruesome experience to sit through these two episodes. They were full of sound and fury and signified nothing more than a total lack of wit.
The writers have mounted an assault on the comprehensive system with a crudely-conceived update of St Trinian's complete with paedophilic master gloating over a half-naked little boy and lots of scenes on the lavatory.
The contents of a typical gag could supply a garden with a lifetime's manure.
ROY'S OUT ON HIS EARPage 3 of the Daily Mirror, Saturday 28th February 1987:
ITV's school for scandal gets chop
By MICHAEL BURKE
ITV's new comedy show Hardwicke House has been axed after just two episodes.Angry viewers voted it a load of old rubbish.
And Central TV have been forced to pull the plug on the every day story of life in a chaotic comprehensive school, which stars Roy Kinnear as the headmaster.
Complaints
A spokesman said five other episodes will be screened "sometime in the future."
But they will go out later than the 8.30 Wednesday night slot that has caused so much uproar.
Hardwicke House is in a class of its own. It shows teachers as perverts in a school full of budding crooks and jailbirds.
Central admit they have been "inundated" with complaints.
But insiders are amazed by the quick decision to scrap the show, which is written by a former teacher.
Central's programme chief Andy Allen said: "This brave attempt to break new ground has not found favour with the majority of the viewers."
Central, is now negotiating with the other ITV companies to give the series another try later at night.
Last night, Roy Kinnear sprang to the defence of the show.
He said: "It was an enjoyable series. I think the decision to take it off was taken rather quickly.
Forgot
"I respect the decision, but I stand by the show."
The scrapping of Hardwicke House means the viewers will miss the sexiest schoolgirl - actress Cindy Day who plays the head prefect.
She is a former kiss-o-gram girl who once landed a smacker on Prince Andrew.
Now her fans will have to wait to see her in EastEnders, where she will be the new love interest for Dirty Den at the Queen Vic.
Said Cindy: "Some people thought Hardwicke House was more factual than it was supposed to be and forgot that it was a comedy series. It was supposed to be exaggerated.
"Those old St. Trinians girls in stocking tops were saucy, but no one complained about them."
ROY'S SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL IS AXEDPage 3 of the Sun, Saturday 28th February 1987:
TV comic stunned
By BRYAN RIMMER and JAMES SEDDONDRUNKEN headmaster R G Wickham's scandalous career has crumbled in disgrace before the end of his first term.
His crazy TV antics have been denounced by viewers and derided by real-life teachers. Now bosses at Central TV have axed the series, Hardwicke House, after only two shows.
Roly-poly Roy Kinnear, who plays the unlikely headmaster was almost lost for words yesterday when the news was broken to him.
"Oh dear! I'm... I'm... well I'm very surprised," he said. "I've just got off a train from Manchester where I've been defending the show on a TV programme. Maybe I didn't do a very good job." Wickham rules over a comprehensive school full of thugs, bullies and weirdos. And that's only in the staffroom.
Hardwicke House's brutal humour and strong language provoked a flood of complaints - many from teachers.
Scripts
Central TV programmes boss Andy Allen said: "On the evidence of the first two programmes it is clear that this brave attempt to break new ground has not found favour.
"Our research indicates that Hardwicke House has a certain appeal to young adults but it's clear that its current time of 8.30 p.m. is not acceptable to the majority of viewers."
Central bosses now hope to pursuade network chiefs to reschedule the show for late night viewing later this year.
Roy Kinnear added: "It seems that Central are admitting the critics are right, but I thought the scripts were very good and I was really looking forward to next week's episodes.
"There may be an argument for showing it later than it is, but at least in this series the teachers are as bad as the pupils.
"Some teachers I have spoken to like the series. And youngsters love it."
TV's SCHOOL SEX ROMP IS GIVEN THE CHOPFrom the Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 3rd March 1987. By Godfrey Barker:
Bad example to kids, say furious viewers
By HENRIETTA KNIGHT
ITV's outrageous comedy Hardwicke House has been taken off the screen after complaints from thousands of viewers.The networked series - set in a Midlands comprehensive and starring Roy Kinnear - showed sex-mad schoolgirls trying to bed their teachers, and pupils running riot.
After just two episodes, protesters jammed ITV switchboards. Most said the children watching at the peak 8.30pm slot.
Now Andy Allen, director of programming for Central TV, the company that made the series, has shelved the remaining five Wednesday episodes.
Sexy Cindy Day, 23, who plays Hardwicke's head girl Donna, had already admitted: "It is all rather naughty."
Stockings
Cindy, who was a hostess in The Price Is Right, dressed in stockings and suspenders to please Hardwicke's headmaster.
Mr Allen said: "We will show the remaining episodes on a late-night slot some time in the future.
"It was a brave attempt to break new ground, but has not found favour with the majority of viewers."
● Cindy will soon be on screen again. She is catching Dirty Den's eye in a coming episode of top soap EastEnders.
NO DOUBT ITV executives are lost in wonder at last week's reverse, "Hardwicke House" (parental fury has forced it from its 8 p.m. midweek screening to late at night "some time in the future").Page 26 of the London Evening Standard, Saturday 7th March 1987:The post-mortem can be imagined. "St Trinians shocked 'em rigid once. The Remove at Greyfriars was thick with smokers and gamblers. Both quite harmless now. Give us 10 years and we'll have 'Harwicke House' on 'Blue Peter'."
One hopes sincerely that the creators of this deformation are not so deluding themselves. It may not be their fault, though I am not sure, that this Nightmare Academy has been filmed at a moment in the Eighties when public education is far beyond a joke. The main alarm about "Hardwicke House" was that it had no jokes at all. It was rich only in third-rate clichés and in vulgarity, sadly believed to be synonymous with wit. Not recognising it at first as a satire, I was shocked by it in a way that Channel 4 rapes and violence could not come near to achieving. The reason, I suppose, is that what might happen to one's child is as close to the bone as a film-maker can get.
No laughing matterPage 10 of Today, Wednesday 22nd April 1987:
GEOFFREY PHILLIPS charts the depths to which TV comedy has sunk - particularly on ITV where the sitcom has been ousted by the twitcom.THE swift expulsion from the schedules of ITV's unruly-school comedy Hardwicke House will have surprised no one unlucky enough to have seen the opening episodes.
The real puzzle is (a) how it came to be made in the first place, and (b) how it came to be scheduled in a peak viewing slot?
Though this show's demise has given an unexpected airing for the under-rated Chance In A Million made by Thames for Channel 4, the Hardwicke House fiasco underscores the parlous level of comedy on TV in general and on ITV in particular.
What is there today that could sit easily alongside Porridge, The Likely Lads, Dad's Army and Rising Damp?
The BBC has Yes Minister, Ever Decreasing Circles and Only Fools and Horses on the active list if not actually in service at the moment.
A rung or two down the ladder there's Last of the Summer Wine, still plodding along, and 'Allo 'Allo which please many while baffling some.
Praise
No one will need reminding that the BBC is also still churning out twitcoms such as Terry and June, No Place Like Home and Brush Strokes but much-maligned Auntie Beeb deserves praise for its recognition that social conditions and therefore tastes in humour have changed.
Thus, with shows such as Butterflies, the BBC has allowed its comedies to change expression, from a toothy grin to a wry smile.
Not so ITV: the formula that worked well enough through the 'Seventies with shows such as Man About the House, Robin's Nest, and George and Mildred may have been worked to death but ITV remains as devoted to the old sitcom style as Norman Bates was to his mother in Psycho.
And not even Master Bates kept wheeling out his mummified mum for public inspection. For ITV's light entertainment departments, though, a grin is a grin, even if it's the result of rigormortis.
Recently Greg Dyke of TVS railed against the preponderance of northern comedies on the ITV network, going as far as to cite what might be termed the Mollie Sugden Syndrome.
Well, tonight on ITV, the latest Mollie Sudgen vehicle gives way to a new LWT comedy set in London.
Anyone hoping for a cranking up of the intellectual pitch will have to struggle a little to contain their disappointment. Running Wild is straight twitcom, with Ray Brooks as the latest in a long line of menopausal males wondering what happened to their lives that once went round at 78 rpm.
This character is a clot. Lovable but a clot. His wife and daughter are long-suffering but understanding. Isn't this where we came in? No matter. In the undead world of Old Sitcom, Pratman lives.
With shows like A Fine Romance, Hot Metal and Agony, LWT has in the past proved it can produce an out-of-the-rut comedy - but Me and My Girl is its current high-water mark. (A discreet veil, if not a mortician's blanket, should be cast over the Cannon and Ball excursion into sitcom.)
Satire
LWT's confederates do not offer much that is better: Thames once the Monday night sitcom specialists, trundle on with Man About the House, retreads like Full House or Never the Twain.
Executive Stress proved to be a cut above the average, thanks mainly to Geoffrey Palmer and Penelope Keith, but there is little else in the LWT/Thames comedy output to reflect the fact that they serve an area with a high concentration of AB viewers.
Yorkshire drained the last drop of Duty Free; Granada who did break new ground with Brass have recently retreated to the familiar with The Brothers McGregor; Central can brandish Girls On Top, though this was nearer The Young Ones than sitcom, but are also guilty of making Trouble and Strife.
The BBC is by no means perfect (after all it did make the retrogressively chauvinist Brush Strokes) but the gap that is now opening up its more progressive and contemporary comedies and ITV's output is illustrated by a compatison of two Richard Briers vehicles.
Writers
Thames's All in Good Faith, which has Briers as a clergyman-about-the-house character, is a pulpitcom like a revised version of Bless Me Father, with knit one, purl one humour that is similarly dated.
Ever Decreasing Circles, on the other hand, is much more of today, with grace notes of social observation, showing what can be produced from the comedy keyboard when writers and cast are allowed to play with the black notes as well as the white.
The ITV companies might excuse themselves on the grounds that they cannot find enough good comedy writers; the writers they have will complain that it is far more difficult to write for the 23 minutes of an ITV sitcom with its commercial breaks, than the 29 minutes of a BBC show.
It will not have escaped anyone's notice though that there are more laughs in five minutes of shows like Rumpole, Minder and Auf Wiedersehen Pet than an entire series of Troubles and Strife.
Rumpole and the others are classified as drama (to help fulfill the IBA's drama norms). It might be a step forward if the ITV companies were to take comedy away from their light entertainment departments and hand over to the drama producers. Or anyone else who knows that it is 1987 not 1977.
Comedy is too serious a business to be left to people who make game shows.
Pervert teachers scrapped by ITVFrom the Birmingham Daily News, Wednesday 20th May 1987:
by PAULINE WALLINITV has scrapped plans for a second series of the controversial school Hardwicke House, and the decision has cost £500,000.
Executives at Central TV, who made the show, were so confident it would be a success that they booked the cast for more episodes before the first series was screened.
But the programme lasted only two episodes after viewers objected to seeing teachers portrayed as drunks and perverts.
Now Central are left with the bill for actor's fees and location bookings.
The series, shown at peak viewing time, was shelved with a promise from Central that it would come back late at night.
But after two months a slot still has not been found.
Yesterday Hardwicke House co-writer Simon Wright said: "I think Central over-reacted by taking the show off.
"The first two episodes had more than nine million viewers, which is extremely good for a new show.
"Yes, people complained about the way teachers were portrayed, but everyone wanted to watch it."
School comedy is finally axedFrom the Daily Record, Saturday 13th June 1987:
Central faces TV classroom jury
by LYNNE POWELLTHE angry author of the controversial TV comedy Hardwicke House has caned Central for dumping the series for good.
Central said yesterday the show, starring Roy Kinnear, will not get a second chance even though a later slot was promised when the series was axed from family viewing time last February.
Co-author Richard Hall, who was writing his first TV series, has slammed the TV station for chickening out.
"You are talking about a whole TV station that didn't foresee any problems during the making of the series. Now it's suddenly all changed," said Mr Hall, a London history teacher.
"The moral seems to be that anytime you object to any little thing in a programme, you get a few of your friends to ring up and the TV company will take it off."
Roy Kinnear starred as a boozy headmaster in the black comedy set in a chaotic comprehensive school staffed by bullying teachers.
After the first two episodes were screened at 8 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. in February more than 200 people called Central's switchboard to complain. More than 8.7 million tuned in for the second episode.
Central immediately took the remaining five shows out of the schedule and yesterday decided to forget them for ever - even though they had booked and must pay for a second series.
TV school spoof takes a caningPage 13 of the Sun, Saturday 20th June 1987:TV bosses have given themselves six of the best over a classroom comedy that backfired.
For it has been decided that the controversial series Hardwicke House just isn't funny enough ever to be screened.
And it means that the finances of Central TV have taken a caning, because it's reckoned that scrapping the black comedy could only have cost about £2 million.
Originally the series, which starred Roy Kinnear as the drunken head of an unruly school, was shelved after only two episodes.
Then it was said that the other five episodes would be shown at a late night slot later in the year.
But yesterday Central TV's programmes boss Andy Allan said that Hardwicke House has been expelled from the screen for ever.
School's £1m wipeoutPage 15 of Television Today, Thursday 9th July 1987:
By TIM EWBANKITV watchdogs have blocked an attempt to get controversial axed comedy Hardwicke House back on the screen.
And in an almost unprecedented move, the Independent Broadcasting Authority have ordered makers Central TV to WIPE their tapes of the show so it can never be seen. The series, set in a Midlands comprehensive school, with Roy Kinnear as head, ended in February after just two episodes.
Angry viewers complained after watching sex-mad schoolgirls trying to seduce teachers, and pupils running riot. Central, who helped to screen the rest of the series late at night this summer, are doubly furious at the ban.
For they have already commissioned a second series - and will have to pay the cast even though the shows won't be made.
An insider said: "That's about £1 million down the drain."
Shock order to 'wipe out' show leaves Central counting the costAs an update to the above, it's worth noting that in 1993 the Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford (now the National Media Museum) tried to obtain one of the unaired episodes of Hardwicke House for their TV Heaven exhibit. They were told not that such tapes didn't exist, but instead that Central were unsure about donating for viewing something that was unbroadcast - which rather suggests that Central lied to the IBA in 1987, and in fact hadn't wiped the tapes at all. Indeed, the TV Heaven programme notes for Hardwicke House state that Central continue to offer the complete set of seven episodes for sale to foreign television stations.
HARWICK HOUSE TAPES DESTROYED
EXCLUSIVE
By ANGELA THOMASTHE ROW over the controversial ITV comedy series Hardwicke House raged on this week when a senior Central executive revealed that the company had been forced to destroy all traces of the series.
Angry Central officials' hopes of salvaging something from the disastrous situation either by selling the series to foreign buyers or showing it here in a late night slot were dashed when they received the precedented order to wipe the tapes of the show.
The order, which we are told came from 'high up in the IBA', is the latest turn in a surprisingly well orchestrated campaign for the series to be scrapped which seemed to begin within minutes of the showing of the first episode in February this year.
Sources within Central maintain that it was unhappy from the start about the early evening slot it was given for the show which had been conceived as an answer to the BBC's highly successful Young Ones.
"For some reason the network seemed determined to market it as another Please Sir or Fenn Street Gang and that just wasn't the case. This was an adult comedy series not meant for screening before 9am," said Central's Jon Scoffield, one of the men responsible for the series.
Talking for the first time about the rapid scrapping of the series Scoffield said: "I still maintain that had the series been given a chance to run at the right time it could have gathered the same kind of cult following as the Young Ones - now we will never know."
The original reason for pulling the series off after just two episodes was given as the strength of public outrage against the against the show which was set in a Midlands comprehensive school.
But even then it was privately thought within the industry that pressure from within the IBA and possibly from the Government was the real reason behind the unprecedented speed and severity of the reaction.
"Obviously there were complaints - there always are with this type of show, but we've also had a lot of support and I'm still getting letters from teachers claiming it was fairly authentic and offering stories which were even more outrageous than the ones we actually used in the programme," said Schoffield.
The seven part series starred an impressively experienced cast headed by Roy Kinnear, Roger Sloman, Tony Haygarth and Nick Wilton and one of the future episodes was to have featured Young Ones' stars Rik Mayall and Ade Edmonson as anarchic old boys. And Central were apparently so pleased with it that it not only gave the show a big pre-publicity build up but was also believed to be preparing to commission a second series.
Central is keeping the cost of the series under wraps but it is believed to be thousands of pounds out of pocket.
"I've never known anything like this before. When the series was shown it seemed like all hell had broken loose, and the order came from high up in the IBA to get it off. Obviously it must have offended someone very powerful, the pressure was incredible - they were down on us like a ton of bricks," said a Central source.
"To follow that up with the order to wipe the tapes shows that maybe the series hit a raw nerve somewhere," he said.
